Stand Up
by mariposablossom
Summary: Alternative title: Tales of a Lucky Diabetic Directioner. College student and English Major Liana Rosado never thought that her way with written words would pay off so well.   "And I won't be leaving 'til I've finished stealing every piece of your heart."
1. Beginning of an Infection

Stand Up – Prologue – Beginning of an Infection

* * *

><p>"Liana Rosado Medina!"<p>

The aforementioned Liana was sitting with her legs crossed on her bed, hunched over a thick book, heavily focused on the text in front of her. She glanced upwards for a moment, looking at the closed doorway that her mother was probably standing behind. She could clearly paint the picture in her mind of a diminutive woman with arms angrily crossed, tapping her foot impatiently, her brow creased in frustration.

Lily rolled her eyes at the thought. "_Que pasa, mami? _ What is it?_" _The girl shifted herself to a lying position, her textbook propped up on the white wooden headboard of the bed.

"Are you studying for your test tomorrow or are you on Tumblr again?" The yell was piercing to her ears despite the wooden door barricaded between them and the headphones blasting music to her eardrums.

Lily groaned heavily in frustration. She'd been studying all night, all day, all week in fact and at this rate she'd end up hitting the books and staying _up all night_.

"_Estoy estudiando_! Do you want me to list to you all the types of essays? There's argumentative, narrative, exposito–"

"Okay, I get it, keep it up _mija."_

Across the door her mother produced a vague appreciative noise and left Lily back to her studies. _Gracias a Dios!_ The dark haired girl sighed yet again (she figured she'd be doing that for the rest of the term) and tried to – failingly – focus on the words in front of her.

_All essays are to one point persuasive as they try to convince the reader of–_

"My brain is going to explode," she yelled out to the heavens, well, more like the ceiling above. Lily let her head drop into her striped pillow headfirst, her continuous whining muffled by the fabric. _ Ugh, I deserve a break…_

Slowly, she lifted herself off the bed, shaking her dark curls in an effort to wake up the rest of her functioning brain cells. That was a bad idea. Her headphones, which had been loosely hanging around her neck, fell to the floor with rapid movement of her head. "Shit!"

Groaning, she knelt on the bed and propped herself forwards, reaching with an outstretched hand under her bed. _Damn headphones, damn day, damn studies…the fuck?_ Her hand touched something else that was definitely _not_ what she had been looking for. Confused and curious, this time she precariously leant her whole body down to scan underneath her bed. A wicked grin slowly stretched across her face as she picked up what her hand had grazed earlier.

_Hello, my lovely little distraction…_

* * *

><p>"Oh yeah! I'm such a rebeeeeel! Doing exactly what mother said not to dooooo," whispered-singed Lily in an impromptu song as she fitted the mini Dell laptop comfortably on her lap.<p>

"My dear Tumblr, I have missed you and your virtual addictive goodness so much this month," she murmured lovingly. _Oh boy_, i_t's been one month of Uni and I'm already going crazy._

The young girl rubbed her hands excitedly as she waited for the Tumblr homepage to load.

A frown marred Lily's features as she scrolled continuously down on the internet page.

"What is this curly-haired mofo doing invading my dashboard?"

For some odd reason the usual mess of gifs and posts had been replaced by a sudden influx of the mention of carrots, superman, spoons, some foreign thing called "Hazza," and an infestation of the mention of 1d, always 1d. What did it even mean? _One diabetic? One diarrhea? One delusion? _ Maybe it was some new trend she had no idea about? The girl pouted and tugged a curl in annoyance. Well, she _did_ have a tendency to disappear from Tumblr and wind up finding about everything way later than everyone else.

_Who the hell am I following that is re-blogging all this shit? _Lily inclined forward, narrowing her eyes in concentration. She scrambled to reach for her glasses on the bedside table situated next to her, jamming them onto her face as rapidly as she could. Now that the words didn't look like a monstrous blur she could see that the culprit was someone named "1d to Mcfly." The young girl scrunched up her nose in confusion, she didn't remember following anybody named that. In fact, she followed no more than eleven accounts, most of them being her real life friends.

Lily clicked on the username and – _Oh, that's Sunny. Why'd she change her username from _**pioneerwizard**_ to this?_ Yep, it was definitely her closest female friend, and her page was full of links to songs she'd never heard about and obscure references to things she had no idea what they had to with.

"Why, in the name of the House of Weasley, would something about a carrot have more than eight-hundred notes?" To Lily this was one of the many mysteries of Tumblr, the strangest things seemed to become popular for no apparent reason.

Lily rolled her brown eyes in disdain; well that was enough, she had wasted too much of her time looking through one of Sunny's obsessive phases. It was time to set her eyes on the prize – the Harry Potter fandom.

_Hmm, Matthew Lewis looks particularly delicious in that gif._

* * *

><p>"Lily! It's nine at night, check your blood sugar!"<p>

"Already on it!" _Not._

A yawn escaped her mouth as she stretched her arms out. Lily gently moved the laptop off of her legs, placing it on the soft comforter of the bed. She quickly reached for the blue medical kit on her bedside table, before her mother could get to the room, and unzipped the bag and let its contents fall to the bed.

_Time for some mood music_, she thought absently. Unpleasant activities called for something to rock out to.

She clicked on the open Tumblr tab, her eyes scanned for the links she had seen earlier. Lily smirked, she figured if she couldn't beat Sunny she might as well join her, the girl usually ended up liking what her friend listened to anyway.

She dragged the arrow towards the link that read "1d Lyric Video" which transported her to an unknown youtube page. With headphones snugly hugging her ears, Lily waited for the video to load as she plugged the small needle to check her sugar levels. She jumped a bit when the needle hit her skin, but it was mostly due to the jarring noise rather than the sting. Quickly she squeezed her finger to let out more blood and let the stick and gluco-machine do their job as she waited for it to register the number. _And 5…4…3…2…__**217**__? No wonder I'm in a bitch mood tonight._ She sighed deeply, high sugar levels just meant drink lots of water, do a bit of exercise, and wait until _later_ to eat a snack. Lily sadly took her headphones in hand as her hungry stomach rumbled and was about to disconnect them from the computer until….

_You're insecure/Don't know what for/You're turning heads when you walk through the doh oh or…_

She jumped in surprise at the sudden noise that blasted her eardrums.

_Everyone else in the room can see it/Everyone else but youuuu…_

Lily's lower jaw dropped and her eyes widened considerably. "_Mami!_ Angels are singing, I've got angels singing in my computer!" She yanked the cord out of the laptop and let the sound waves travel across the hallway and through the entirety of the house.

"If this is another Jonas Brothers song I don't care Lily!"

Lily grabbed the laptop, jumped off the bed, and ran down the hallway careful not bump into any corners. "This is better than them _mami_, I don't know who they are but they're amazing!"

Her mother was sitting on the sofa of the TV room watching a Spanish soap opera. She raised an eyebrow at her daughter's harried state, chuckled at her antics and turned down the volume of the television. "Okay let's hear it, then."

"It's a group, I think. I'm pretty sure I hear different voices in the song." Placing herself next to her mother, she lodged the laptop between both of them.

_Baby you light up my word like nobody else/The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed/But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell…_

Her mother smiled as she bobbed her head in time to the song. "They're good, so who are they?"

Lily furrowed her brow, "I don't know, let me look at the title again." In her hurry she had accidentally minimized the window, the girl clicked on the bottom bar again, opening the window, and read.

"They're called One Direction."

_You don't know oh oh/That's what makes you beautiful…_

And as you all know dear friends, the infection had only just begun.

* * *

><p><strong>Hola fellow Directioners! (I'm assuming you are if you're reading this fic). In case if anyone wonders if this stuff actually happens in real life…it does. This is actually based on how I found about One Direction – and yes my mother is that cool, she's a fellow Directioner, too. Having established that, Lily is NOT me.<strong>

**I hope you stay for the ride because the official first chapter is already in the process of being written. Just need to finish it up and edit.**

**Anywho, tell me what you think of it so far! The good, the bad (but maybe not the ugly) of reviews are welcomed.**

**Simply,**

**ThatOne**

**P.S. "**_**Pioneerwizard**_**" is an actual Tumblr account. Go follow her and her 1D blog, "**_**dessi-horan**_**"**

**P.P.S. Speculations, anyone? Do you guys have any inkling of who she could possibly end up with? ;p**


	2. The Infection Spreads

Stand Up – Chapter 1 – The Infection Spreads

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><p>"TGISBFAO!"<p>

"Um, what?"

"Well Lily dear, it obviously stands for 'Thank God It's Saturday Because Fridays Are Over-rated'."

Sunny made a gesture and face that pretty much meant, 'well, duh.' In response Lily raised an eyebrow and patted her friend on the shoulder. "Whatever you say, _amor_."

Sunny ruffled her short light brown hair with one hand and harrumphed, "Hey! You make it sound like I'm some lunatic that people need to agree with whatever they say or else I'll go all psycho."

Lily stopped suddenly and put a hand dramatically to her chest, she gasped, "Wait, so your mother lied to me!"

Sunny playfully smacked her friend on the shoulder. "Not funny. _Don't make me touch your mango!_"

"_This coming from a person with the sex appeal of a penguin," _retorted Lily.

The two girls glared at each other for a couple of seconds and promptly burst into laughter afterwards. It was a strange day if obscure references to a book series were not made between them. The duo made a peculiar pair walking throughout the small shopping centre; Sunny's tall figure towered over the diminutive Lily, there were practically one third of a metre between their respective heights.

Still giggling over their earlier dork moment, they walked into the food court, shopping bags in hand, and headed over to an empty table to set their items on. Sunny plopped down on a seat as Lily took out a blue pouch from her messenger bag and placed it on the table.

"So do you want me to wait for you to do your med stuff or do I go order now," asked Sunny whilst gesturing to the syringe and alcohol swab that Lily had taken out.

Lily thought about it for a moment, biting her lip in concentration before deciding, "Stay, I need to know my sugar level before I decide what to eat."

Sunny shrugged her shoulders in response, and took out a magazine she had bought earlier out from one of her bags. She started to rifle through it as Lily checked her blood glucose and prepared the insulin she would inject.

_Okay, so the number was 112*…three measures of Humulin N and two measures of Humalog._ Lily started to hum a song as she passed an alcohol swab over the soon-to-be injection site on her lower stomach. She grabbed the syringe from the table, uncapped the orange tip, lifted her shirt a bit, and angled the needle. _And cue the mental mood music_.

She took a deep breath. _All right, three…two…and on-_

"OH MY GOD YOU'RE HUMMING _WHAT_ _MAKES YOU_ _BEAUTIFUL_!"

The unexpected words startled her and she almost plunged the needle at the wrong angle. She glared at her friend's overly excited smile and frankly quite scary expression. Sunny's eyes practically popped out of their sockets, her smile threatened to split her face from how wide it was.

"Sunny, _what_ have I told you about making _noise_ when I'm putting my insulin?"

Her friend's brown eyes widened and her pale cheeks flushed pink, "I'm so sorry! It's just that I haven't met that many One Direction fans here in Puerto Rico and I didn't even know that _my best friend_ liked them and –"

Lily clenched her teeth, rolled her eyes, and resisted the urge to sock her obsessive friend in the face. "First of all, talk later. Secondly and most importantly, insulin now. I'm kinda busy preventing my death."

Sunny smiled sheepishly and whispered, "Okay, okay, sorry. I'll resist, _mala mia_."

Lily rolled her eyes exasperatedly. Honestly, the way this girl obsessed was unmatched.

_Now, back to business. _Angling the needle _again_ over the skin of her stomach – she gave Sunny a pointed look before proceeding further – she plunged forward and broke skin.

She hissed at the stinging sensation as she felt the small needle creep further into the fatty area of her lower stomach. Lily took the needle out gently and glared at the rivulet of blood that poured out.

_Fuck, I broke a capillary._

* * *

><p>"Why the hell did you just swerve, Sonieliz?"<p>

Lily held her hand to her chest, trying to settle down her racing heart. She would have smacked the girl for nearly giving her a heart attack if it weren't for the fact that said girl was driving, if she could even call what Sunny had just done "driving."

"What do you mean you haven't seen the music video, Liana? And I thought you a Directioner! I bet you didn't even know that they were on X-factor or that they're backed by Simon Cowell." The tall girl gripped the steering well tightly and rapidly shot a withering look at Lily before leaving her eyes on the road again.

Lily gave her a 'you can't be serious look' before answering, "And that's grounds for suicide by intentional car crash?"

Sunny groaned, "I didn't _mean_ to almost hit the railing. You just took me by surprise."

"The _railing_ that protects us from a fifty foot cliff," remarked Lily, "Remind me to never throw you a surprise party, you'd probably murder the poor bastard next to you."

"Anyway, what _do_ you even know about One Direction," inquired Sunny as she drove on to the road leading to Lily's house.

"That they're called One Direction and have a fabulous single called 'That's What Makes You Beautiful'."

_Screeech._ Sunny hit the brakes, causing the momentum to throw Lily forward. "And that's it?"

"_Mujer_, what did you do the person who administered your driving test? Drug them?" The younger girl's hands were gripping the seat; the usual deeply tanned skin had paled in fright.

Sunny absentmindedly waved her hand and said, "Never mind our lives. _You_ are going to your e-mail later because I'm going to send you internet links of everything a Directioner needs to know as soon as I get home."

Lily snorted in laughter and face-palmed – there really wasn't anything else she could do. She sighed in resignation, "Just get me home, Sunny."

"I'm going to Facebook stalk you until you embrace the One Direction infection, you know that right?"

Lily whipped her head to the side in order to face Sunny, a smirk graced her features. "I can count on one hand how many times I've been on Facebook since I made the account this summer, so good luck with that."

* * *

><p><em>Ring. Ring.<em>

Lily closed her eyes and sighed, trying to block out the sound of her mobile. It had been ringing nonstop for the past ten minutes, and she was pretty damn sure she knew the identity of the caller - without having to look at screen of the phone.

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

"Shut up," Lily groaned into her pillow as the mobile's screen flashed light into the darkness of her bedroom, yet again.

_Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring._

_Lord Jesus, it's two in the fucking morning._ Slowly, Lily sat up on her bed. She contemplated giving in and answering the phone, Lord knows that would stop the racket. And yet, as soon as the thought entered her mind she felt her heart harden. _That's exactly what she wants,_ Lily told herself. She'd be damned if she gave up so easily.

_Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring._

Apparently Lily was damned.

The dark haired girl groaned in exasperation and fetched her mobile from the bedside table. She forcefully flipped the top lid, pushed the little green button, and angrily pressed the phone to her ear.

"You have five seconds to convince me to not slip arsenic into your drink tomorrow."

"_Jesus, someone's recovering from a sugar low. Let me guess, your BG was somewhere around the 60s tonight, am I right?"_

Lily rolled her eyes, "No. 50s. Speak, Sunny. I know you didn't call me to discuss my diabetes. Now, why did you wake me up at this ungodly hour?" Lily's eyelids were drooping with sleep, the complete darkness of the room –besides the light of the mobile – did not help her case at all.

"_Kindly hop off my dick, __**porfavor**__. Don't take out your wonky health on me; I just called to check if you'd seen all the videos of One Direction I sent you. I'm assuming you didn't though, considering you're not squealing and basking in the awesomeness of these fine five angels."_

The young girl palmed her face. "Motherfu-"

"_Oh nu-uh, language __**mija**__; you know, for being an English major you sure like to defile the language way too often."_

Sighing dramatically, Lily let a rueful grin spread across her lips as she mentally shook her head at Sunny's antics. "Fine. You win, I'll go look up the links you sent me. Now _you_ kindly hop off my nonexistent male genitals and don't call until after noon."

"So you're willing to throw around the word fuck as easy as you please but you can't say dick or pe-"

Lily ended the call before the conversation got out of hand. She snorted in laughter as she rose up out of her bed to search for her laptop – and unbeknownst to her, the obsession of a lifetime.

* * *

><p><em>Hola, it's Sunny! Sorry for not being here, leave a voicemail at the beep, <em>_**porfavor**__. BEEP._

"CAUSE WE'RE LIKE NA NA NA! THEN WE'RE LIKE YEAH YEAH YEAH!

Girl, why are you not answering my phone? I blame you for all my music obsessions! AH, I hate you- no I love you but I'm not making any sense 'cause it's effin' four in the morning and I watched all their video diaries and liveshows and auditions and stupid damn it EVERYTHING! That music video was beautiful! My emotions! I can't contain them! This is all your fau-"

_Beep. Voicemail ended._

_Beep. Beep._

You have received 1 text message from Sunny-D

**POTATOOOOO!****I, Sunny Robles, am fully responsible for any damage done to Liana Rosado Medina's person due to One Direction Infection. BTW, NIALLER IS MINE! ;p**

* * *

><p><strong>Glossary:<strong>

Amor – love

Mujer – woman

Mala mia – my bad

Porfavor – please

Mija – portmanteau of 'mi hija' which means my daughter, but can also be used to refer directly to a close female; kind of like in English when people refer to as females as "Hey, girl."

x.O.x.O.x.O.x

**Author's Note:**

Well this was a weird chapter to write (because Lily is not really that much like me and it is fun to write characters that are different). Is it strange that these events are – again – mostly based on real life? :D

1D owes their career to electricity. I owe my 1D infection to a combination of Tumblr, "Sunny", and Youtube – in that order.

So as always, tell me what you think, feel free to ask questions 'cause I'll answer them in a PM, and I'm so glad none of you have predicted yet what's going to happen – or who Lily will end up with. It's funny; because I've dropped little subtle hints (I'm so evil, not).

**By the way, if anyone caught the **_The Mortal Instruments_** by Cassandra Clare at the beginning of the chapter, you are awesome. If not, go read the series because it's fabulouis!**

Simply,

_ThatOneDiabeticGirl_


	3. Operation: Up All Night

Stand Up – Chapter 2 – Operation: Up All Night

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><p><em>It's time to get up in the morning<em>

_Got Cheerios breakfast for you_

_Or any other brand_

_I walked 10 feet to get it_

_So you better get up and eat it_

_You don't wanna be a selfish lazy girl_

_So we gotta get up!_

_Time to get up!_

_It's time to get up!_

_It's time to ge-_

"OH MY GOD IT'S SEVEN IN THE MORNING _CALLATE_!"

An inelegant snort escaped Lily as she stood next to the bundle of sheets on the bed that was the drowsy form of Sunny. The room was dark what with the shades of the window barring light from the room. Lily tapped her foot impatiently with arms crossed as her friend tried to find the land of slumber that had escaped her.

"No pity here, I'm waking up before seven for the rest of my life, Sunny."

The tall brunette harshly muttered something from under the sheets, unfortunately Lily caught her words. The short girl just raised an eyebrow and smirked. She silently strode over to the window, loosening the shades so they let in the light and skipped over next to the sleeping girl with a mess of dark curls bouncing around her.

Suddenly a pair of quick hands pulled away the striped sheets, exposing Sunny's face to her namesake – mister blazing Sun himself. Sunny – who had been slowly stretching herself awake underneath the sheets – immediately closed her eyes and buried her face into the pillow, shouting various Spanish swear words at her best friend.

Lily sat on the bed laughing. "You know, a simple _ah, the light _would have sufficed."

Thoroughly annoyed, Sunny stuck her tongue out and launched a pillow at Lily's face, which she threw back in return whilst chuckling. She loved to poke a little fun at Sunny in the morning when she slept at her house. Despite her nickname, Sonieliz Robles Gonzalez was most definitely _not_ a morning person.

Sunny threw herself back in bed and mumbled something that vaguely resembled 'get out of my room.' Bouncing up out of the bed, Lily rolled her eyes and trotted towards the door leading into the kitchen. When she reached the doorframe she smiled and said, "Oh, and next time you refer to me as the inappropriate equivalent of a female dog, I'm dumping your breakfast into your face. How's that for a rude awakening?" Hand propped on hip and mischievous glint in her eyes she sang, "Be in the kitchen in five or your food will get cold."

Sunny raised an eyebrow in confusion, "But where are my Cheerios?"

"In the cupboard," Lily shrugged innocently, "I was only kidding before; there are pancakes and bacon on the table calling out your name."

At this, Sunny excitedly threw the covers off her legs and shot out of bed towards the kitchen, almost knocking an astounded Lily to the floor.

"You're welcome," she muttered, sarcasm practically dripping from her words.

* * *

><p>"Ugh, I'm so full – can I have another plateful?"<p>

Lily, who had been rummaging in the refrigerator, stuck her head out and sent a disapproving look at Sunny. "You ate three pancakes – with more than enough syrup to send me into a diabetic coma, mind you – five strips of bacon, scrambled eggs, and a hash brown plus you downed an entire sixteen ounce glass of orange juice – _non sugar free_ juice."

Sunny leaned back in the wooden chair, stretched her arms, and smiled sheepishly, "So would that be a maybe?"

"Sadist."

"Fine, fine, fine." Sunny threw her hands in the air. "You win in succeeding to make me feel guilty – I'm sorry for being healthier than you. Speaking of health, did you put your insulin?" It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn't seen Lily do anything remotely medical – besides measure out her food in portions.

A _thump _sound reverberated behind Sunny, causing her to turn around her chair to face in the direction of her friend. Apparently Lily hadn't heard due to the fact that she was munching on an apple while inspecting some papers clipped on the refrigerator.

"_Oye tu, _did you or did you not put your insulin," demanded Sunny with a stern edge in her voice.

Lily glanced Sunny's way and scrunched her nose before replying, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, calm your ti-"

"Ahem."

Sighing dramatically, Lily continued, "I woke up _before_ you and did all the yucky stuff before making breakfast."

After a moment of silence in which Lily returned to read the paper on the refrigerator, Sunny asked yet another question.

"May I ask _why_ I'm up so early with you? We're both off from Uni today and this is _not _how I planned to relax." Sunny snapped her fingers and shook her head in an 'oh no you didn't motion' all with a pout on her face.

To the girl's surprise, Lily burst into laughter, unclipped the papers on the refrigerator, and chucked them in her direction.

Sunny caught the papers –which turned out to be a calendar – and raised a worried eyebrow. Sometimes she didn't know which of the two of them would go insane into old age first. She shook her head and thought, _Sometimes, this girl…_

Which was promptly interrupted by the page the calendar was open to.

The words at the top clearly read _March_.

There was a big red circle around a very specific Tuesday – the same Tuesday she had just woken up to in fact.

_Tuesday, 20__th__ of March, 2012._ Now she remembered why Lily had slept over at her flat last night.

In the little box marked 20th read in bright red letters…

_**1D ALBUM COMES TO THE AMERICAS!**_

Holy effin' shit. Insert fangirl squeal here.

* * *

><p>"Flip them curls, Lily! FLIP THEM CURLS!"<p>

_THE WAY THAT YOU FLIP YOUR HAIR GETS ME OVERWHELMED! YOU DON'T KNOW OH OH! YOU DON'T KNOW YOU'RE BEAUTIFUUUUUULLLL!_

"Jesus, Sunny! Don't flip _your _hair, you almost hit that dog!"

And they were back in Sunny's truck – enduring her terrible driving. On their way to the only modern music store to the closest shopping centre in _Aguadilla_ about an hour – damn that traffic – away from Sunny's hometown of _Camuy_. Typical Puerto Rico – a small island, too many people on the road and way too much time wasted on short distances.

"But I'm so excited I'm going to explode!" Sunny gripped the steering wheel tightly in her hands as she bounced like a hyperactive monkey in her seat – the _driver's seat_. Lily had a wide-eyed frightened expression plastered to her face while she re-tightened her seat belt and clutched tightly to the bottom of her seat.

"Why the hell are you so frickin' excited! You just downloaded all their songs from iTunes this morning!"

Sunny had a maniacal grin on her face as she kicked the gas and harshly turned right onto the #2 (the main highway of Northern Puerto Rico). "Because my dear Lily, I'm still going to make the line so I can get two free One Direction posters to hang up in my room."

Lily squeaked in terror as they almost hit a motorcycle driver squeezing between the lanes. She shook her head in exasperation and thought, _and yet people wonder why I'm not keen on learning how to drive._

"May I remind you that the only reason we're even actually going is because _I_ need to buy the CD. Not you – Miss I have an iPhone and I'm so cool because of it." Lily emphasized her words by snapping her fingers and pouting her lips in an attempt to imitate a snobby girl.

Sunny laughed and retorted with an obnoxiously high-pitched voice, "And I'm Lily, the weirdo who still uses a working CD player even if they're more ancient than my grandmother's underwear."

The younger girl stuck out her tongue playfully and smacked Sunny on the shoulder. "Because that shizz is expensive, but as soon as I finish paying for college I'll start a 'buy Lily an iPod' fund."

As they entered the car park of the Aguadilla shopping centre, Sunny replied with, "Pfft, yeah when CDs are obsolete and you have no choice _but_ to buy one or else no music for you."

Lily rolled her eyes as she opened the car door and stepped out.

"Whatever."

* * *

><p>"<em>Mira nena! Quiero mis chicos ahora así que mueve el trasero o te voy arrancar la ca-"<em>

"Sunny, shut your mouth before you make the poor girl at the register shit bricks!"

With widened eyes and a pout, Sunny whirled around to face Lily, harshly grabbing the girl's upper arms in the process. "Don't you see?" She shook the smaller girl excitedly – a worried look crossed Lily's eyes. "I'm so close to getting two massive posters of the boys! Of One Direction! Do you not comprehend how important this is to me?"

Lily rolled her eyes and let her crazed friend rant. It'd be better if she got it out of her system now rather than explode when they finally reached the front desk.

"And this bitch!" Sunny let Lily go and vaguely back in the direction of the young nerve-wracked cashier a feet away from them. "She's so frickin' slow – she's _denying_ me my right to sexy males being hung up on my wall." At this the short haired brunette looked back and sent her a dirty glare – which unfortunately did not go unnoticed by the pitiable cashier. "She's a female; she should understand me and my womanly needs. _This_ is wrong. _This_ is breaking girl code. You don't _mess_ with girl code."

Lily sighed. "There's no such thing as girl co-"

And yet Sunny interrupted as she continued her tirade – by now she was really into it – and actually had the girls in front and back of them nodding vigorously. They mumbled their agreement with reverent 'you go girl' and 'true that.'

"We who are ruled by estrogen must unite in our right to fangirl! Now Lily my dear friend, what do you have to say to that?"

At this point Sunny's pale cheeks were flushed pink and red, had visibly worked up a bit of a sweat, yet the maniacal look stayed present in her eyes.

Lily bit her lip as she pondered for a moment on how to respond.

"I'm never letting you pour maple syrup onto the bacon again. It makes you _way_ too hormonal."

Sunny groaned and threw her hands up exasperatedly, "Ugh, no one understands me!"

Lily snorted. "Says every teenager in the world. Now move _nena_, we're up next."

_Ding_.

The cashier rang the bell at the front desk that signaled for the next customer to move – which just so happened to be a smiling Lily and a bewildered Sunny. Apparently she hadn't noticed that the line had moved considerably during her angry outburst.

The cashier sent a wary look towards Sunny's way as said girl smiled sheepishly while nervously ruffling her hair. The tired employee retightened her bleach-blonde ponytail in an effort to recompose herself from the day's events so far, and it was only half past ten in the morning. A tired – probably mandatory – smile appeared on the girl's face as she readied the cash register.

"_El CD de _One Direction_, verdad_," asked the cashier, a bit of exasperation in her voice.

Lily smiled understandingly, "_Si, nada mas uno pero dos _set _de _posters _para mi y para mi amiga, porfavor."_

And so the girl bent down to fetch a brown cardboard box from underneath the counter and propped it in front of them. Several girls giggled excitedly behind the duo – as the package was clearly marked with _**1D**_and had pictures of the five boys they all obsessed over plastered on the side.

The bleached-blonde rummaged the contents and came out with one copy of the _Up All Night_ album which she dropped into a plastic bag. Lily's fingers unconsciously twitched as she had reflexively wanted to hold the item as soon as she saw it. She took a silent deep breath to calm herself down.

Setting the box aside – to which many girls in the back of the line seemed to magnetically inch towards to – the cashier yet again reached underneath the counter only to come up with two rolls of paper. One she shyly handed to Lily, the other she harshly launched into Sunny's awaiting hands - not even sparing the thrilled girl a glance.

Once all was paid and done -the girls sprinted out of the store, down the main passage of the shopping centre, and skedaddled out of the centre itself towards the vehicle faster than you could say 'SUPERMAAAAN.'

* * *

><p>"<em>LLEGUE<em>, I'M HOME!"

"Sonieliz, you don't live here."

"Lily, your mum is being mean to me!"

"And you're not from the UK either."

"BLASPHEMY!"

Lily had been changing into her pyjamas as her mother and her best friend squabbled in the kitchen. She couldn't help but chuckle at their strange antics. She hurriedly slipped on some socks, ran out of the room, down the hallway and entered the kitchen.

Truth be told, the sight before her was a tab bit chuckle-inducing. Her mother was seated at the dining room table calmly grading some papers for her 6th grade English class; a wan smile graced her face, brow furrowed slightly in concentration. Sunny on the other hand was melodramatically huddled in a corner, her eyes verging on tearing up.

She wasn't sure whether to laugh or shake her head exasperatedly so she settled for both. "First of all, Mami you don't say such things to someone who wishes to live in the UK so much they believe they were born in the wrong country."

Her mother rolled her eyes – apparently such traits were inherited – and continued grading papers as if nothing mattered. The scritch-scratch of pencil and pen were her only audible response.

A sudden whimper made Lily turn her head towards Sunny. The tall brunette raised her gaze, which had morphed into a puppy-dog eyed expression. Lily cocked an eyebrow and smirked.

"You and your two years of theatre class don't fool me, now march up to my room Drama Queen or I'm stealing your One Direction posters."

In response, Sunny made a strangled sound followed by a glare and an 'I'm watching you' motion with her hands.

* * *

><p>"Lilyyyyyy, I want I want I want to see the posters! I want I want I want Niall in me! I want I want I want <em>for you to sit the fudge down.<em>"

Suffice to say, Sunny was feeling sexually frustrated.

"Someone's horny for Horan."

Lily grabbed the posters from her bed and set them in front of Sunny who was seated on the floor. She plugged her stereo and excitedly inserted her _brand effin new One Direction CD_ inside it, and pressed play. She made sure the CD was on 'repeat' for good measure before plucking a pillow from the bed. The striped pillow was thrown onto the floor promptly followed by the curly haired girl's bum.

"Let Operation: Up All Night begin!"

Sunny and Lily looked at each other excitedly and giggled like giddy schoolgirls for a while. After the giggles had been suppressed – for the most part – they focused on the matter at hand.

* * *

><p><span>Paso Numero Uno of the "Epic-tastic Directioner Sleepover:<span>

**1 – One Direction's on replay! They're on replay! (**_**Nice touch, Lily **_**:D)**

"Step One complete," squealed Sunny. She continued on in an imitation of Niall's voiceover man impression, "And now for what we've all been waiting for…"

Paso Numero Dos

**2 – Open up the posters and fangirl over their (almost) presence in Lily's room. (**_**Erase that 'almost'. it will happen one day, Sunny!**_**)**

To those unaware, the excitement this step created probably merited some sort of explanation. Fortunately for Puerto Rican Directioners, the purchase of the Up All Night album – or even just making the line – was rewarded with two never before seen (in Puerto Rico) posters.

One would be of a group picture.

"EEEEEH!" Sunny jumped onto Lily's lap and shoved the poster in her hands onto Lily's face. "Look look look, it's a picture from the _Gotta Be You_ video! They're all gathered by the bonfire thing that appeared in it. _Dayum_, Harry looks sexy in that coat and scarf – sorry Niall," she exclaimed guiltily.

Lily pinched Sunny's bum harshly, which caused the older girl to squeak and land ungracefully onto the bed beside them.

"Uh huh, yes practically orgasmic. Now it's _my_ turn." She calmly unrolled the paper and smiled so hard at the sight in front of her it was a miracle her face didn't crack in half. Before her was a scene from the _One Thing_ video. It had all the boys posing goofily on the top of the bright red bus amidst a busy London.

Lily wordlessly stood up, grabbed the tape on her bed she had reserved earlier for this occasion, and stuck the poster next to her only other 1D poster: the boys on the orange vancamper from the _What Makes You Beautiful_ video.

_That much perfection on a wall should be illegal._ She shook herself out of her thoughts before they led down into Fantasy Lane and turned towards Sunny with a wide grin. She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. Sunny laughed and asked, "Are you ready for the real heart-attack inducing moment?"

"If life were Tumblr I'd insert a gif of a screaming Louis with a caption that said SEXUAL FRUSTRATION."

And the other poster was a large image of one of the boys - just one. No refunds at the store, no replacing for one your dream band member. It was all or nothing.

"Okay, we do this at the same time," said Sunny as she closed her eyes and breathed deeply while sending a silent prayer for Niall to appear when she opened the scroll. Lily just nodded her head accompanied by a shrug of her shoulders and replied with a, "Okie doke."

"And one, two, three – "

"Flick!"

Sunny burst into laughter while Lily smiled sheepishly. "Aw come on, you know the moment was begging to happen."

After that they agreed to _finally_ unfurl the posters together.

"_Y uno, dos, tres!"_ exclaimed Sunny. On _tres_ both girls snapped the rubber band holding the scroll together and unrolled the scroll excitedly.

"What? What the hell, no!"

"Allright, don't murder me we can fix this."

Sunny pinned down Lily under her weight and forcefully held up Lily's poster so they could both view it. Lily winced at the sudden pressure, although, the sight of Sunny's murderous face wasn't much help either.

"Explain to me Liana Marie Rosado Medina why in the name of all that is Irish why _you're_ the one who got a _Niall _frickin'_ Horan_ poster and not me!"

From her position all Lily could do was muster a weak, "Fate?" Unfortunately, the look on her friend's face told her that was the wrong answer.

"Screw fate, I'm making my own destiny. We're switching posters, _ahora_."

Lily had a sneaking suspicion there wasn't any room to say no. Thankful to the fact that she had stayed determined to not choose favorites until she ever met them personally, she quickly complied with her mental friend.

Sunny danced around the room with the flat image of Niall Horan posing topless in Calvin Klein underwear.

_Yep, definitely mental._

As Sunny was occupied, she took it upon herself to reach for the scroll that had been hastily thrown to the side in rage earlier. _So if it's not Niall, who is it?_

She sat down on the floor and gently unfurled the scroll again, flatting out smoothly some of the wrinkles Sunny's hands had created earlier. Once she rid the paper of the creases she took a good look at the boy who would soon honor her wall with his presence. A small gentle smile spread across her lips.

Staring up at her with a topless tanned torso, a cheeky smile, rumpled hair, and blue blue eyes, was Louis 'Culon' Tomlinson himself – and in a pair of tight Calvin Klein shorts as an added bonus.

* * *

><p><span>Authors's note:<span>

Spanish Glossary:

Callate – Shut up

Oye tu – Hey you

¡Mira! – literally means _Look! _But is commonly used to call someone's attention. (This is actually really rude if the person is a stranger or someone to respect. Personally, I only use it when referring to friends and close family. Generally void calling someone's attention by saying _¡Mira!) _

Nena – slang for girl (I'm pretty sure it's most commonly used by Puerto Ricans, but I can't confirm that to you completely. Teenagers tend to use this more than _chica _or _niña_).

Quiero mis chicos ahora así que mueve el trasero o te voy arrancar la cara. – I want my boys now so move your bum/butt or I'm going to rip your face off. (Try not to use this one in daily life.)

El CD de One Direction, verdad? – The One Direction CD, right?

Si, nada mas uno pero dos set de posters para mi y para mi amiga, porfavor. – Yes, only one but two sets of posters for me and my friend, please.

llegue - I've arrived

Uno, dos, tres - One, two, three

(And that is your Spanish lesson for the day/night/morning/whatever.)

_**Author's Note:**_

Disclaimer: I don't own the Time to Wake Up song. That is unofficially copyrighted to One Direction; although I did have fun using my revised and personalized version.

Trololol, if you think you're in the clear as to who the boy is – you are wrong, girlies. I plan on confusing all of you a hell lot more in the upcoming chapters. Prepare to start thinking: "Wait it has to be this boy!" "No it's not that one, but there's a whole bunch of hints on this!" "Ugh, no that is too obvious, but maybe that's the point." "MY BRAIN HURTS!"

Sucks for you, there's only one person who knows **and she better keep her mouth shut or else. Oh, and she'll know what the "or else" is soon enough.** You got that "Sunny" aka 1dtomcfly. Or else.

Also, if you're wondering _when the hell are the boys going to appear_, all I say is soon - very soon. If all goes according to the outline, most likely in two chapters maximum. It would've been the next one but I had to cut off this chapter because it was getting to long (9 freaking pages on Word). The good news is that I'm already started on the next chapter, which will finally partly reveal why the summary is the way it is. Plus, the plot will finally start moving.

Simply,

_ThatOneDiabeticGirl_

P.S. Go read Sunny's 1D story she just uploaded a few days ago. It's called "Something's Never Change." Her account is "1dtomcfly". It's only a prologue for now but she already has interesting plans for it (I'd know being the beta and all).


	4. Etcetera

Stand Up – Chapter 3 – Etcetera

* * *

><p>"'<em>Cause I can't love you more than this, can't love you more than this…"<em>

"Sunny, could you stop serenading your bacon?"

Said girl took a decisive bite out of her bacon and stuck out her tongue immaturely. Lily raised an eyebrow and continued picking at her lunch - or better said, breakfast for lunch. "By the way, those bacon bits I'm seeing right now in your mouth, such a turn on."

Sunny laughed, which turned into a cough, which led to her choking and clutching her throat in desperation. Meanwhile, Lily calmly fetched a water bottle from her bag and placed it in front of Sunny. She didn't worry too much because as her _abuela_ used to say, 'if they're coughing, air is getting through and they're not dying.'

When her coughing fit was over and done, Sunny took a gulp of water meanwhile shooting Lily a dirty glare.

"As I said, insanely attractive."

"Well if you're going to act like an itch with a capital B then I won't show you the surprise I had for you." Sunny huffed snootily and crossed her arms; she looked away from Lily in a 'screw you' motion with her face.

Lily returned it with a smirk and a raised eyebrow which basically translated into 'and I'm looking for a fuck to give.'

After several silent seconds had passed…

"UGH FINE! You win again this round."

A self-satisfied grin spread across Lily's face, both because Sunny - to her embarrassment – had just realized that they were sitting in the middle of a bustling and busy bakery at noon and because she knew Sunny always caved in when she had something she was itching to share.

Leaning forward, Lily laid her chin on folded hands. "So…spill."

Sunny excitedly bent down and rummaged through the purse on her lap before bringing out two crinkled copies of a magazine. The tall girl excitedly bounced on her seat as she waved a copy under her best friend's nose. Warily, Lily held out her hand to take the magazine. She turned it over so she could read the title, which informed her that it was the latest copy of _Bop_, one of the few popular American teen magazines that managed to circulate Puerto Rico.

Lily's brown gaze scrolled over the cover page. The usual topics seemed to dominate – _Selena and Justin Bieber, on the rocks or on the rise? Are you the girl for Cody Simpson? Jonas Brothers are making a comeback. Special Interview with the Hunger Games cast. _And basically heaps of blah blah blah.

Before Lily could formulate the question as to why she needed to view this garbage.

"Upper-right corner."

Her eyes landed on the corner and suddenly the magazine was no longer garbage at all.

_Are you a Directioner? Is your dream the same as every other fan? Turn to pg. 24 for more._

Lily tore her eyes from the page and took a quick look at her friend. Sunny had her magazine open to what she assumed was the article the cover page was directing her to, considering that her smile was face-splitting and giggles kept spouting from her every other second.

She sighed exasperatedly. "Can't you just tell me what it's about? You're going to fangirl anyways by the look of it."

Sunny giggled yet again. "Nope, you're going to have to find out yourself." She cheekily pointed at the magazine in front of her.

_Fine, _Lily thought sulkily, _turn to page 24 for more._

* * *

><p>"This is too awesome to ignore, c'mon just give it a try, Lily!"<p>

Lily groaned, "You've got to be shitting me. No way, I don't have time for this."

"Aw come on Lils, don't be like that," begged Sunny with a frustrated look on her face.

The two girls kept on arguing outside of Lily's house, they were seated in Sunny's van. Lily kept shaking her head as if saying 'no' repeatedly while Sunny exasperatedly tried to convince her friend. The question was…to convince her of what?

"I'm not saying we're going to win! I'm saying we have a chance, everyone has a chance!"

"So does every other Directioner in the States and Puerto Rico."

With that statement Lily left the van and marched towards her house, determined to ignore the constant pleas of her best friend just as she had tried to do for the past few hours.

She stopped in front of the door and fumbled for her keys inside her bag but her mother opened it from the inside. Lily gave a quick '_gracias_' to her mother, kissed her on the cheek, and made her way to the kitchen.

"What's Sonieliz doing making all that noise?"

Lily muttered unpleasantly while she took out her insulin from her lunchbox and stored it in the refrigerator and the ice pack up top in the freezer. She went to take out the rest of her items from the lunchbox but her mother walked over to Lily, putting a hand on her shoulder in an indication to stop.

In silent frustration, Lily inhaled deeply and pulled back a hand through her dark mess of curls. "It's fine; she's just being her usual obsessive self."

Her mother grinned in an understanding manner and shooed her out of the kitchen. "I'll take care of the lunchbox, go focus on University work."

"_Muchas gracias, mami._" She smiled warmly before heading to her room.

Lily tiredly threw her backpack on the bed and went to get a change of more comfortable clothes. Her mind was racing with possibilities but a little voice kept niggling at the back of her mind reminding her that she was only one of millions of fans. Lily pulled on a loose red top and fixed her maroon glasses before grabbing her textbook from the bedside table and plopping down on the bed. Maybe burying herself in her studies would help take her mind off the conversation that she and Sunny had earlier.

Yet after a while of struggling to concentrate on her French textbook she couldn't find a way to turn off the rushing stream of thoughts churning through her brain. Sighing deeply, Lily ran a hand through her hair and decided that maybe a nice afternoon nap was in order.

Perhaps the land of dreams would be a better refuge.

* * *

><p>"<em>This is perfect for you!"<em>

_Sunny held up the BOP magazine in her friend's face excitedly as Lily finished reading the article. Or perhaps better said, __**contest**__. Honestly, the girl didn't know what to think of it all. It was exciting, wondrous, marvelous but…_

_A frown marred Sunny's face as she noticed her younger friend's brow furrow. "What's wrong?"_

_Lily glanced at her best friend's concerned look and apparently something in her gaze said it all. With a groan of frustration, Sunny exclaimed fervently, "No no no no no, nuh uh. You need to take a chill pill and your pessimism needs to kick it in the backseat for this."_

_The curly haired girl looked away and didn't respond. She knew Sunny was right, but…_

_Sunny rubbed circles over her temples and closed her eyes as if to relieve her irritation. "Before you say anything, just think of this."_

_Lily sat attentively but kept eating the food on her plate. She rolled her eyes at the situation. Here they went again, Sunny brimming with optimism, Lily preferring to be a realist – or as the tall girl liked to call it, an _**aguafiesta**_**s **__or a person who rained on the parade._

"_Listen girl. This is just for fun; if it one of us wins we win and have the best fucking time of our lives. If we don't, sucks for us and all the other girls who entered, but we tried. Whatever, we'll have another sleepover and pretend we don't give a damn."_

_Lily couldn't help but let a small smile crack the stoic face she was trying to keep. It was so like Sunny to charge through life as if she didn't have a care. Not that she didn't, she just worried about that sort of thing later on when it was too late._

"_It's not that I don't want to," Lily protested. "I just don't have time. I've got Uni work to do, plus my jobs – emphasis on the plural – and I've got heaps of doctor appointments – more emphasis on the plural – coming up this month."_

_Sunny could tell that a rant was well on its way. Noticing that Lily had already finished her lunch she quickly grabbed their stuff and pulled her out of the chair and out of the bakery before she unintentionally formed a scene._

_A squeak escaped Lily as Sunny unexpectedly forced her out of the seat. It wasn't that hard, really. Sunny towered several inches over the diminutive Lily. Plus Sunny's volleyball and basketball-toned upper body put the younger girl at a significant disadvantage._

"Nena ¿que te pasa? ¡Suéltame!"

_Lily tried to rid herself of her friend's grip by shaking her off, but it was to no avail. Sunny dragged her out to the car park where the van was waiting. Seeing that it was pointless to resist, Lily let herself be hauled around until Sunny finally let her off in front of the door of the passenger seat. When they stopped, Sunny opened the car door and signaled for her to get in._

"Ay gracias, corazón. Que considerada eres,_" she commented in a mockingly sweet tone. Though in an instant she dropped the fake smile in turn for a scowl aimed at Sunny._

"_Yes, I _**am**_ being a considerate friend, thinking of _**you**_ when you're being an idiot." Sunny shook her head in frustration. It's not like she was torturing the girl. In Sunny's opinion, sometimes Lily could be so stubborn and one-track minded._

_Lily on the other hand, sulkily sat herself in the car and sulkily leaned back in the seat with her arms crossed. This car ride was not going to be pleasant in any way for either of them._

* * *

><p>"<em>¡Hora de cenar! Liana, son las cinco de la tarde.<em> You have to check your blood sugar and inject your insulin now."

Lily woke up with a start. _What did I just dream about?_ Then she groaned frustrated that she couldn't escape Sunny's rant even in her slumber. Her subconscious was screaming at her apparently to have some fun and give a try, if only because it was entertaining. Yet that little intelligent voice inside her mind Lily had started to listen to for the past two years kept reminding her: meds, school, appointments, etc. And the one who kept the others going, _jobs_.

Money, she needed money for Uni unless she planned to drop out and Lily was too proud to ever consider that option unless she absolutely had to. _Entre la espada y la pared_, as her mother used to say - between the sword and the wall.

She needed money for her whole medical situation: insulin, injections, glucometer, strips, lancets, etcetera.

All the doctor appointments: endocrinologist, psychologist, neurologist, dermatologist, ophthalmologist, gynecologist, etcera.

All the emergency backup supplies in case she went on a sugar low: gluco-tablets, gluco-gel, glucoshot, glucagon, etcera.

All the other medicines, for the extra complications that arose from time to time: asthma medicine, special shampoo for when her hair started falling off, hormone patches, etcera.

It was always etcetera.

Not to mention the electricity bill, mobile phones, the house, gas, the car, food. The food! Why did healthier food have to be more expensive? Brown rice cost twice the amount of white rice and yet the latter set her blood sugar crazily all over the place.

She kicked off the sheets furiously. Sometimes she wanted to scream and just drop it all. But she'd never go back to that place. It was only her and her mum plus the help they rarely accepted from the rest of her mother's family. Her mum, who worked as a poorly paid English teacher at the local public school and stayed after school three times a week tutoring for extra payment. Lily, who worked at the Boys & Girls' Club in the town next to hers, tutored Uni students with English after class, and was the assistant manager of the children's soccer team near where she studied.

Honestly, Tuesdays and Sundays were her only reprieve.

_Snap out of it!_ She mentally shook herself out of the downwards spiral she was headed to. No, she couldn't ever break down. Lily felt she owed so much to her mother for putting up with all the shit she'd caused in earlier years.

_Beep. Beep._

The mobile phone flashed brightly on the floor. Shit, she must have flung it off the bed when she threw off the bed sheets earlier. Sighing, Lily crouched down to retrieve the mobile, wondering who had sent her a text message. She flipped the top up and read the text.

**1 message from Sunny D**

_**If you're not trying, I am anyways.**_

_Oh Sunny_, thought Lily sadly. _Give it your best shot. Wish I had the time to give mine._

Setting the mobile down on her bedside table, she reached towards her backpack and unzipped it in order to take out her diabetes supplies and check her sugar level. _Another duty done for the day_, she thought with a slight bitter edge to her thoughts. Although, she couldn't help giggle at the consonance of the phrase; she also couldn't help the inelegant snort afterwards when she realized what an English nerd that made her for thinking such a thing.

Maybe Sunny was right, she really was meant to enter that contest. Yet she quickly pushed that thought behind.

* * *

><p>"<em>Listen Ms. Dramatic<em>, _I'm only going to try to convince you one more time. You need to loosen up a bit, and have some fun or else you're going to drive yourself into the grave."_

Lily was lying down on her bed with her University textbooks splayed in front of her and her mobile on loudspeaker on the bedside table. In reality she was only half-listening to the conversation but she'd mostly learned to multitask. It was a woman thing.

"I don't think that's what will drive me six feet under, if you ask me," she remarked lazily as she scribbled away taking notes from the text.

A strangled noise blasted from the loudspeaker, Lily was pretty sure that had been Sunny expressing her irritation at the slightly morbid humor.

"_Okay my darling babe, you just keep thinking that way if you want to, but I'm going to try this contest and I'm giving it my all."_ Lily's eyes scanned her homework yet again as she mumbled a vaguely encouraging _m'kay. _She propped herself up on her elbows in order to try to find a more comfortable position.

"_Liana Marie, are you listening?" _

"Not really. I'm trying to outline this essay I have due tomorrow for English Lit." She twirled her pencil into one of her curls as she wondered whether should analyze the Edgar Allan Poe poem or Emily Dickinson that the prof had given them to choose from.

"Really now? So you wouldn't mind if I said I was fucking your brother yesterday behind the bleachers after basketball practice."

Lily bit her lip, deep in thought. _Maybe Dickinson, they're both overrated but Poe is even more so._

"_So what do you think of that?"_

"Oh, yeah that's fine. You go on ahead and do that," responded the girl. Maybe she should hang up soon on Sunny; she really needed to get ahead in school work if she was to go to her team's practice tomorrow.

"**Ay Dios mío**_, first of all, you don't have a brother. Second of all, would it be too much to ask if you could frickin' listen to what I have to say?"_

With a frown, Lily hesitantly dropped her Uni work to give her best friend a few seconds of her time. "You know you're a bit melodramatic today, right? Usually you don't take all this effort into convincing me to do something I don't want to."

"_Oh hell no. Girl, first of all, you are the queen of melodramatics. You may think I am but it's actually you. This shouldn't even be an issue. All you have to do is write a damn amazing essay on which member of One Direction you'd love to meet and why! You write all the time, it's your major, this is your calling, and you love to do this shit so don't tell me otherwise."_

This was going too far in Lily's opinion. She huffily took her mobile and turned off the loudspeaker whilst jamming the device next to her ear.

"I am not mailing in some half-hearted rushed piece of shit just so I can have some measly chance! I'm either giving it my all or not at all; since I don't have the time I'm not doing it." Lily tried to calm herself down and mumbled, "There hasn't been any free time to write these past years."

Silence ensued after that.

The dark-haired girl made a move for her pencil but she was interrupted by a concerned voice.

"_I just think you shouldn't go to extremes. Life is going to pass you by but you won't even take time to enjoy the little moments."_

Lily bit her bottom lip as she listened to Sunny. She could practically see in her mind the motherly concern plastered onto Sunny's expression as she spoke.

"Besides, you don't have to send in a perfect essay, just write from the heart." With that being said, Sunny hung up.

The words tugged at Lily's heart and at her writer's soul. Her gaze turned towards the top drawer of her bedside table. She pulled herself into a sitting position – all the while keeping the mobile pinched between the crook of her shoulder and neck – and opened the long abandoned hideaway. The inside contained a plethora of notebooks in all sizes, colors, and patterns. Some were brightly colored, some were plain, and this was one was a little ripped, the other one had a stripy theme, this one had a floral pattern, and that one had a picture of a puppy on the cover, etcetera.

She reached out for the nearest one; it was a pale pink spiral-spine notebook with a strawberry pattern around the edges. Lily smiled to herself, remembering it as one of the journals from her early days, back when she had the Strawberry Shortcake obsession.

Tentatively, she decided to take a peek, maybe the memories evoked would speak out to her. Maybe her younger self would have some youthful words of wisdom.

* * *

><p><em>July 2004<em>

_Dear Mia,_

_My name is Liana. I wish I had a cool nickname but no one has given me one yet and Armando (that's my cousin in case you don't remember from the last two journals) told me that you can't give yourself a nickname, only other people do. I asked him to give me one but he told me that it doesn't work that way either. He says that sort of thing isn't planned. So for now I'm just plain old Liana._

_I know I've said who I am in each journal but I thought it would be cool to have an "introduction" (by the way I learned that word a few months ago in 5__th__ grade English with Mrs. Villanueva so I thought I'd try it out) each time I start a new notebook. That way I can look back and see who I was whenever I'm older. (I hope I still like to write)_

_You may have also noticed that I'm writing this in English instead of Spanish. I think it is good practice because I speak Spanish all the time at school anyway. Yari (my other cousin, her real name is Yarelis. See, she has a nickname. How come I don't?) says practicing English outside of school means I'm an _estofona_ - I think the English version is "nerd" but I'm not sure. I don't care what she thinks. She's stupid for only wanting to stick with Spanish._

_I'm the one who wants to learn English because I want to visit places like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia (Armando says they must have koala as pets, but I looked it a book at the school library and I don't think that's true)._

_Maybe I'm too much of a dreamer, but I want to be an author or maybe a journalist. Is it too big of a dream to want to have my work published? I don't think so, but my family says if I like English so much then I should just be a teacher like mami. In my opinion I think that's okay but that'd be more of a back-up plan while I publish my stories and articles. _

_I just want to travel and see the world but for now I can't. So I write and pretend that I'm not who I am. I'm not a little girl stuck on a small island with not enough money to even visit my father in the States. In stories I'm not a girl with diabetes and asthma and I don't have to see my mother worrying about the doctor's bills and whether or not we can buy medicine or not._

_Sometimes I worry if we'll have enough money for University when I get older let alone travel. What if I don't get to do all I want to do and go to the places I want to go before I die? _

_Last year I had to stay in the hospital for a week because my blood sugar went crazy (like Yari whenever me and Armando steal her makeup and she has to see her boyfriend without it). What happened was that I had a lot of allergies a few days before that so the doctor gave me some medicine so I wouldn't get an asthma attack later on._

_Well, I certainly didn't get an asthma attack, but the medicines and my allergies made my sugar levels go out of control and I fainted during soccer practice._

_It wasn't so bad like other hospital visits. I only had to get one IV and they had to draw blood out more than usual while they controlled my sugar levels again. But I really don't like having more needles than I usually need (like my daily insulin) so I had a panic attack when then nurse tried to prep me up for the IV. _

_It was kind of funny how big black and blue the bruise on her cheek got. It's not my fault she wasn't very nice when handling me. Besides, she should try to look less scary when holding that big needle._

_But dang, that shoe can fly. I don't think a plastic flip flop would have worked how the boot did. I kinda feel sorry for her. I forgot the heel had a metal part when I threw it at her._

_But anywho, the point is. I'm scared of a lot of things. What if mami and I can't save enough money so I can go study at University? What if I my diabetes goes all crazy when I'm older and I start go going blind? Or my kidneys stop working? Or my heart does? Or I go into a coma? What if I go to sleep one day my blood sugar goes too low and I never wake up? _

_My dreams will have only been dreams and nothing more._

_Jeez, sorry Mia. What a way to start my idea/feelings journal. I promise I won't be so sad-sounding all the time. _

_Here's some good news, I just turned 11 this month!_

_Love, _

_Liana Marie Rosado Medina (Badillo Acevedo Avilés Lorenzo Carrero Grajales)_

_P.S. My American friend, Becca, has only one last name. I asked mami why and she said that's what a lot of non-Latinos do. English-speakers can be weird sometimes. I mean, that's so boring. And Becca's mom has the same last name as her husband. I thought it was a coincidence or maybe they were cousins who fell in love._

_Mami asked me if I was reading Gisy 's (that's my cousin, Giselle) romance novels again but I said no (I actually did but I hid it when I got to a scene I really don't want to write about here). She said that a lot of women change their last name when they get married._

_Why would do they that? That'd be like taking away a Dalmatian's spots and putting stripes instead. I'm never changing my last name, even if it sounds prettier than mine. Even if my future husband isn't Latino, I'll make him understand._

_P.P.S. I have way too many cousins. They keep popping up in all my journals. I should make some friends at school one of these days. I wish Sunny went to my school._

* * *

><p>Lily couldn't help but laugh 'til tears threatened to seep out. She was such an awkward child; well she still was awkward but even more so years before. Sometimes she wished she could go back to those days where her worries only existed in all the versions of Mia.<p>

Pulling back a curl behind her ear she thought to herself, maybe she should try to give the contest a try. Hey, it wasn't as if she was guaranteed to win even if she had all the free time in the world to perfect that essay. It would be fun, and then she and Sunny could laugh about it afterwards at their pitiful attempts to meet One Direction and how they fantasized about getting to know them.

Lily closed the old journal and hid it away in her drawer for it to collect dust again. And yet she knew herself all too well. She'd fantasize and dream to the point that she'd be crushed when she didn't win. It was stupid, she knew, childlike even, but it wasn't something she could help.

"Mija, go to sleep soon. You have to work at the Boys & Girls' Club and go afterwards to the kids's soccer practice tomorrow after school. Try to get more sleep tonight you can't run on only four hours of sleep."

Lily breathed in and gave out a heavy sigh. Honestly, she'd built something up only to have it torn down before far too often, to the point that she just couldn't handle even the most minimal letdown.

She leaned back in her bed, closed her eyes, and let the memories flood her mind.

_Don't be a dreamer all the time, it won't get you anywhere._

_Get your head out of the clouds, Liana._

_I'm sorry Lia, it's just too much._

_Corazón, I don't think we can afford this just yet._

_Do you ever think of anyone besides yourself?_

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, and so on.

* * *

><p><strong>Spanish Glossary<strong>

abuela – grandma

Ay Dios mío - Oh my God (so if you ever get tired of saying OMG, just say ADM and you'll feel much cooler)

gracias – thank you

muchas gracias – thank you very much

aguafiestas – It literally means person who waters the party. What English-speakers call a "party pooper" or a "wet blanket" or "someone who rains on the parade".

Nena ¿que te pasa? ¡Suéltame! – Girl, what's wrong with you? Let go of me!

entre la espada y la pared – it's a saying literally meaning "between the sword and the wall"; it's similar to when English-speakers refer to being "cornered"

Ay gracias, corazón – Oh thank you, sweetheart.

Que considerada eres – You're so considérate

Mija – portmanteau of "mi hija" which means 'my daughter'

Mami – equivalent of Mum/Mom (just in case anyone forgot)

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>

I know, I know, some of you might want to kill me. I haven't updated in a month and I'm sorry D: but I gave you an extra-long chapter with lots of foreshadowing, character development, and the beginnings of the underlying plot.

I hope that makes up for it *insert ridiculously cheesy smile & two thumbs up here*

Anyway, I know this chapter has no boys, but it was necessary. I don't like jumping into things and I needed to build some ground before I started tackling the main overtly obvious plot. The next chapter's already started, so that's good. Actually, this was going to be much longer but I would've stretched out too much and would have had to delay updating.

And now you can connect (somewhat) what the summary has to do with the plot. I won't comment on that anymore in fear of accidentally spoiling. :p

Oh, and I wanted to give you guys a heads up. Somewhere down the road, I might be having a little contest. 4/5 of One Direction already have set future/current girlfriends. One of the boys does not. What does this mean? Well my darling girlies, it means once it becomes obvious what boy Lily will end up with (or at least which one will remain thoroughly single) I'll build a little profile for you guys to send in VIA PM NOT REVIEW and your girlie shall appear in the last couple of chapters.

Yes I have planned out that far, and am perfectly capable of fitting her in.

I'll alert you when that time comes :)

AAAAANNDD I got a Twittah, so if you want to follow me there that would be awesomesauce. I'll be posting updates every now and then concerning the story. Plus I get lonely at Uni and love to talk to random strangers so that's cool too.

Me - No life

Mah Twittah: (at symbol)mariposa_fly or look me up as Mari_Puerto Rico_1D

Mah Tumblah: therabbitholeinto1derland(dot)tumblr(dot)com

As you can tell by the url it's really almost all 1D stuff. So yeah…

That is all. Awkward.

Con amor,

ThatOne (actually just call me Mari from now on)


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